Putin-P Series
The Putin-P Series is an action romance song series conceptualized by the user Numtack05, the songs composed using the Vocaloid Software. The story, which is split roughly into four parts, relies heavily on Vocaloid and its influence in Japanese pop culture. Other elements used in the series are the history of Russia, America, and Japan during the Cold War, as well as internet culture in the present day. History Early History In January of 2008, the user Numtack05 stumbled upon a compiled video of remixed Ronald McDonald ad campaigns on Nico Nico Douga. Finding the video funny, he decided he wished to make his own funny videos using the Vocaloid program. As a result, he purchased Kagamine Rin and Len in addition to Hatsune Miku, deciding he would make them tell a story as they sing in his videos. With his resolution made, Numtack05 began his story by uploading Don't Leave Me Alone. that same month, releasing the first chronological song in the series, It's the End!, the next day. Having simplistic videos consisting of Rin's box art and having little context to it, the videos didn't garner much attention compared to the large fanbase the series would have in the years to come. That same month, he uploaded the next song, Together!, and the rest of the songs in Part 1 over the course of the year. Following the release of I'll Give You Chocolate!, the producer began to call himself "Putin-P" in reference to his work on the series involving Vladimir Putin. Humorously, after uploading Under the Cherry Blossoms☆, he also calling himself "Teihen-P," as a reference to Rin insulting her uploader as "base" (teihen) in the song. By the time he'd started working on Part 2, Numtack05 began collaborating with artists to create higher quality promotional videos for the series. A few months later he contacted Shiuka and requested that they both collaborate together, working secretly on the new song, Magic is Heresy, with the illustrator by April 4. On April 12, he uploaded the first song for Part 2 with Shiuka's accompanying illustrations, beginning to solidify the more coherent narrative that began in Part 1. The Series Takes Off Releasing his videos for Part 2 over the next several months, Numtack05 finally finished it up with The Eyes That Don't Vanish. on September 16 of 2008, the video delayed due to complications with the illustrator's health. Becoming immensely popular with fans, viewership of the Putin-P series increased dramatically after the song's release. After a bonus song, I Don't Wanna Hear It!, was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga, Numtack05 informed his illustrator that the series would have a third part, and Shiuka subsequently announced the fact on their personal blog. As he prepared to move on to Part 3, in October 19 of that year Numtack05 also uploaded a new, full version of "It's the End!" and uploaded it on Youtube, at some point taking down the older and shorter version. The revamped song was meant to be a prologue of sorts to the series, making use of the boxart from the first part and another picture to make a simplistic and mysterious video. With his other work completed, on November 30 Assassin! was uploaded, officially beginning Part 3. The song was followed up by The One Who's Nothing. in December and, by 2009, the next two songs were released in the first three months of the year, along with a bonus song The Twisted Emperor ○. With the upload of Although I Want to Sleep! in March, Numtack05 began a new subplot for the series concerning Elena and Teppannov, to the interest of the viewers following the story. That same month, continuing to receive many questions and comments from viewers, Numtack05 decided to make a new platform on which to speak to them and created a blog as "Putin-P", humorously naming it the Puulog☆. Making his first post on the 13, he made it clear to viewers that the story of the Luka character was completely set in the past and moved on a separate time frame from that of Rin and Len's. He then assured viewers that the next video would be a direct continuation of the cliffhanger made in We Met Again, eh?☆. Numtack05 followed through on this post with the release of Goodbye to the Dream☆ on May 16; he incidentally released a bonus song, Kalpi!, to advertise an upcoming album around the same time. On June 18 he also uploaded an illustrated PV for a full version of I'll Give You Chocolate!, musing on how the song had had many interpretations in the past. Albums As the series climbed in popularity and viewership of his songs increased, Numtack05 began arranging albums for release. By May 25 of 2009, he had compiled an aforementioned album of bonus songs for between Parts 2 and 3 and uploaded them to his blog in a ZIP file. By the time The Other Side of the Mirror＞ was uploaded in July, Numtack05 was already working on a new album to release with remastered songs and a booklet of illustrations drawn by Shiuka. On August 20 this album, made for Part 1 and titled Don't Leave Me Alone., was announced on the Puulog to be released at VOC@LOID M@STER 12. On the 23 of that month a crossfade was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga to advertise the album and its various tracks, both new and old. Meanwhile he continued to release songs for Part 3 with Let's Go on a Trip! in October and To You, To Me. the next November. The following year he released four more songs, each time answering viewer questions and commentary on the Puulog, before reaching a break after the double uploads of The Voice in My Heart. and The Voice in My Heart ○ in May. Around this time Numtack05 began preparing the third album for the series to be released at VOC@LOID M@STER 13, titled The Night That Can't Be Seen, The Eyes That Don't Vanish., made for Part 2 of the series. A crossfade for the album was uploaded on July 15 of 2010, featuring the booklet illustrations by Shiuka and commentary from Hikkie-P very roughly translated into English. Five days later, Numtack05 officially announced details for the album on his blog. After the convention, with four months having passed since the last video was released Numtack05 began working hard to complete the final song for Part 3, Illusion Catastrophe/A Place to Chat!, after Shiuka finished up the necessary illustrations. Following a sleepless night Numtack05 finally uploaded the final video for Part 3 in the early morning. In the PV for the song he also announced a final, fourth part for the series that would take place over exactly four videos. The Other Side of the Happy Ending Working on the first song for Part 4, Numtack05 and Shiuka both faced difficulties in their video-editing and subtitling software. Nonetheless, in Christmas of 2010 Numtack05 made several uploads; to celebrate the holiday season, two were remixed versions of the song Assassin!, one of them with a video drawn by Hikkie-P, and video was the first PV for Part 4, The Broken Mirror.. Two months later, in February of 2011, the second part was released showing Rin's "happy end" via Goodbye to You★. While the end of the video teased the next installment to finish Miku's story arc, the PV for With the You I Can't See. was released seven months later in September, with Numtack05 commenting on the lengthy data-exchange between himself and Shiuka as a result of the large video. In the end of the PV, Numtack05 stated that various things were likely to happen in the final video as had occurred in the last three. During the intermediary period between the new release and the next Numtack05 released a smattering of inconsequential songs, including an instrumental named "ring." The fourth part of the song series remained incomplete for over a year, however, delayed by several personal complications--including Numtack05 breaking his personal computer--as well as the larger amount of work required by the final, animated PV. During this time fans were tided over by the release of another bonus song in March, A Man of Few Words., and another illustrated PV for Part 1, this time showcasing the full version of I'm Happy!, on May 10. On May 11, Numtack05 made a blog post announcing the video and apologizing to fans for getting so out of pace. Finally, on December 16 of 2012, Numtack05 collaborated with several producers and uploaded a new video to NND and Youtube. Titled The Endless Survivor!, the song previewed two of the illustrations that would be featured in the final PV and assured viewers that the last part would be released on the 23 of December. As promised, Numtack05 finally uploaded In Your Eyes. and completed the series with the resolution of Len's, Rin's, and Teppannov's respective story arcs, thanking his viewers for watching to the end. As the series wound down to its end Numtack05 made another blog post on the 24 to provide his own thoughts and commentary on the series as a whole, relating some of his inspirations for the story and details of his personal life. In the first month of 2013 he made another post answering to Nico Nico Douga commentators's observations on Teppannov's side of the ending, expanding on the man's feelings as he went to assassinate Putin. Additionally, he provided more explanation on Rin, Red Rin, and Miku in the final video. With that post, although occasionally bringing Putin-P back up in live streams, the series was finished and Numtack05 moved on to other projects. Setting The series is set primarily in contemporary modern Japan, while containing several science-fiction elements. The bulk of the story takes place in Tokyo while it follows Rin, Len, and Miku, and several known sites in the city are referenced throughout, like Suidoubashi Station. The timeline for the series is indetermine, but the "modern day" era is believed to take place in the early 2000s at the same time as when the songs themselves were uploaded to Nico Nico Douga. While only shown sparingly at first and mostly through flashbacks, the backstory of the series is shown in Russia both before and after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, although the exact dates are again unknown. Despite the contemporary and period settings, the world of Putin-P contains more advanced technology than found in real life. This includes most prominently the existence of complex and lifelike programs with personalities and social lives. The plot also hinges on a character being able to construct spam-files with memories and personalities using data technology from the late twentieth century. Despite this anachronism in technology, the series generally relies on contemporary pop culture icons and historical events. Media Songs By the time of its ending, over 40 songs were included in the Putin-P franchise, including 35 songs used to tell the main story and several miscellaneous or non-canon songs. While the songs in the main story were uploaded in videos onto Nico Nico Douga for public viewing in sequential order, the miscellaneous songs were either uploaded onto NND or included in albums as exclusive tracks, if not both. The songs conveying the main story were divided into four distinct parts, with nine songs in Part 1, eight in Part 2, thirteen in Part 3, and five included in Part 4. Multiple miscellaneous songs were included as exclusives over the three albums released by Numtack05 to promote the series. During the course of his work, several songs were re-released with remastered versions on NND and in their albums. Parts *Part 1 *Part 2 *Part 3 *Part 4 Songs Albums *Don't Leave Me Alone. *The Night That Can't Be Seen, The Eyes That Don't Vanish. *Putin-P Part 2.5 *Yukkiina! Inspiration The Putin-P series deals with many heavy themes such as the use of recreational drugs, unrequited love, political intrigue, cover-ups, and corruption in the government. When writing the story Numtack05 was inspired by the Cold War between the United States of America and Russia, the former as the home of capitalism and the latter as the home of communism. He was inspired as well as by the role of the McDonald's franchise establishing restaurants in Russia during this turbulent era. Numtack05 also cited a book that he read that explained administrating drugs to soldiers to help them cope with their duties was a regular occurrence, using this information as an important building point when writing the story of Irina and her comrade. The story also features many meta elements, with the main characters being based on the VOCALOID program used to compose the songs and characters from other media, like Ronald McDonald and Abe-san, being characters in the series' universe. Historical figures or prominent people living in the present-day are also featured in the series as it takes a look at modern-day celebrity culture. Numtack05, as a professed fan of modern wrestling, includes multiple references to the sport. This is shown especially in giving the characters wrestling styles and including cameos from prominent Japanese wrestlers. Additionally sites such as Nico Nico Douga, Youtube, and others on the internet exist as the forum by which the Vocaloid characters convey the story. Numtack05 has said in regards to this that the Vocaloid characters exist in part as personifications of things that happen online. As part of this the vices of everyday people also present online are enacted by the Vocaloid characters in using weed, gambling at race tracks, and stealing. Trivia Notes *The series was structured like an anime from Part 2 onwards, with each next song being referred to as an "installment" previewed at the end of each video; similarly, the ending credits of In Your Eyes. were made to resemble anime credits. *Similarly, many illustrations by Shiuka in the song PVs were made adhering to cinematic angles, the 180-degree rule in particular. Category:Series